Story Structure

Most popular posts

Prehistoric cave archeological cave carving of six men in a boat used to symbolize the deep meaning of a 6-word memoir

6-Word Memoir

Writing a 6-word memoir might feel impossible at first, too restricting, maybe even unfair. You might think, How do you...

Painting escaping criticism by Caso utilized here to suggest a feeling that learning constructive criticism and how to employ it appropriately will allow the author to escape criticism effectively

Constructive Criticism

One of the most important skills you’ll learn as a writer is how to take constructive criticism.  Feedback is an...

Pictured: a café that has a sign out front that employs alliteration and immediately evokes a strong feeling that answers any reader who asks the question: "What is alliteration?"

What Is Alliteration? (And How to Use It in Your Writing)

One of the best pieces of writing advice I ever got was: read your work aloud. When you do, you...

A child feeling sand for the first time is one of the images we understand to be evocative of sensory details.

How to Use Sensory Details in Your Story

Your goal as a writer is to immerse your readers fully in your story, to help them experience what it...

An evocative image that suggests to the writer reading this blog that good screenwriting classes should evoke a sense of childlike learning joys.

Screenwriting Classes: What to Look for

Whether you are new to the craft of screenwriting, or perhaps stuck somewhere in the middle of your manuscript, the...

What makes a good story is suggested by a fourth piece of four quadrants slotting neatly into a missing gap — suggesting that the key to a good story comes from the hand of the writer.

What Makes a Good Story? The Four Elements

This is a question that can often lead writers down the wrong path. Many try to answer this through the...

Character Transformation
Blog
Alan Watt

Transformation

Story is the most powerful way we have to express ideas. We can actually see the journey that a human being takes

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Home
Memoir
Alan Watt

Finding Home

“Home is where one starts from.” – T. S. Eliot There’s nothing more primal than our quest for home. The dilemma is

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Setting Up the Argument
Blog
Alan Watt

Story is an Argument

(Image from “Big” 1988) Story is an argument. The theme (or dramatic question) is the thesis statement, and the story is the

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What Does it Mean?
Blog
Alan Watt

What Does it Mean?

Everyone has a story. It takes courage to tell it, be it memoir or fiction, because there comes a point where we

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Plot vs Theme
Blog
Alan Watt

Plot versus Theme

Any writer can experience that moment where you suddenly realize that your “idea” of the story isn’t going to get you to

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Story Structure
Blog
Alan Watt

Story Structure

Story structure is often taught by story analysts as plot, but it is really the DNA of our protagonist’s internal journey to

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Recent posts

Falling Action

Falling Action: The Bridge Between Climax and Resolution

What happens after a story’s climactic moment? What comes after the protagonist wins the girl, or defeats the bully, or...

Climax

How to Write a Compelling Climax

The climax. This is the moment your reader has been waiting for. They’ve spent hours immersed in your story, falling...

Story - A Journey of Self-Discovery

Story: A Journey of Self-Discovery

Story is always a journey of self-discovery “The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates Embarking on a creative...

Exploring the Dilemma

Exploring the Dilemma

At the heart of every story lies a dilemma. It is not a question of whether or not your protagonist...

Character Transformation

Transformation

Story is the most powerful way we have to express ideas. We can actually see the journey that a human...

The Imperative for Dramatic Conflict

The Imperative for Dramatic Conflict

A director told me once that if you put two actors together in a scene without directing them or staging...

Home

Finding Home

“Home is where one starts from.” – T. S. Eliot There’s nothing more primal than our quest for home. The...

Setting Up the Argument

Story is an Argument

(Image from “Big” 1988) Story is an argument. The theme (or dramatic question) is the thesis statement, and the story...

What Does it Mean?

What Does it Mean?

Everyone has a story. It takes courage to tell it, be it memoir or fiction, because there comes a point...

Exploring Your Protagonist's Dilemma

Exploring Your Protagonist’s Dilemma

(Image from The Hunger Games, 2012) “The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for...

Plot vs Theme

Plot versus Theme

Any writer can experience that moment where you suddenly realize that your “idea” of the story isn’t going to get...

The Nature of the Want

The Nature of the “Want”

“To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.” – Isaac Newton While exploring the nature of the “want”...

How Do You Identify the Dilemma in Your Story?

How Do You Identify the Dilemma in Your Story?

At the heart of every story lies a dilemma from which all tensions and conflicts arise. How do you identify...

The End of the Story Informs the Beginning

The End of the Story Informs the Beginning

In Steven Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, he states: “Begin with the end in mind.” For...

Writing Act Three

Writing Act Three: Our Hero Accepts the Reality of Their Situation

It can be frightening and exhilarating to realize that our story is bigger than we are, that in fact, it...

Story Structure as an Experiential Model

Story Structure as an Experiential Model

There is a structure to the universe. From the smallest atom to the forces that move the planets, there is...

Story Structure

Story Structure

Story structure is often taught by story analysts as plot, but it is really the DNA of our protagonist’s internal...

The Lens Through Which You See Your Story

The Lens Through Which You See Your Story

“I find that when I am working I become like an antenna, and suddenly everything relates to my screenplay: a...